Where we left off at the end of season one: The arrest and charging of Joe Miller, husband of D.S. Ellie Miller, as the confessed murderer of Daniel Latimer sent shock waves through Broadchurch and shattered the Miller and Latimer families.
The second season picks up several months later and follows both story lines set up in the first season to their inevitable conclusions. While the tainted Sandbrook case was an albatross hung around Hardy's neck and most of season one, it shares the stage during the second season with the murder trial for Danny's confessed killer. The season opens with the commencement of Joe Miller's trial for the murder of Danny Latimer. Everyone expects Joe to plead guilty and spare the Latimer family and the whole town the trauma of a trial. Except Joe's plea of not guilty in open court shocks his wife, Hardy, the prosecuting attorney, and the man's own defense attorney.
As the shell shocked townsfolk prepare for an unexpected trial, Hardy, who has since been invalided off of active duty, prepares for life-threatening, life saving surgery to repair the cardiac damage brought on by his case in Sandbrook. The failure in the Sandbrook case to secure a conviction and its aftermath is what brought Hardy to Broadchurch. As this series progresses the grueling trial lays bare the secrets brought to light in the first series.
In Sandbrook two girls, cousins, went missing one evening while their parents were at a wedding. The younger of the two was found days later in a nearby stream. The other girl was never found. Meanwhile the return of Lee Ashworth (D'Arcy), the suspected killer of the two girls who got off on a technicality, sparks Hardy to re-open the Sandbrook case unofficially. Ashworth tracks down Hardy in Broadchurch and Claire Ashworth, his estranged wife, in the nearby country-side where Hardy has stashed her in 'not-witness protection but like witness protection'. Hardy enlists Miller's reluctant help in unofficially re-opening the Sandbrook case and pursuing an investigation. The ensuing investigation turns up lies and omissions told by several parties in the case as well as disproving previous assumptions and revealing new leads. Ultimately there are several thematic parallels between the Sandbrook and Broadchurch cases.
Some rants:
I don't know what Joe Miller is smoking in prison, but it must be some powerful stuff. Dude thinks he can plead not guilty, get off for murder, and just pick up where he left off with his wife and sons in Broadchurch as if nothing happened and said wife and sons will welcome him with open arms. He is either seriously delusional or so far in denial about the consequences of his situation. How does he go from 'being tired of hiding' and confessing to all NOPE, didn't do it?
Claire is shady. How many times can one woman change her story of what happened the night her two neighbor girls disappeared? The woman's skill at lying and how easily lies fall off her tongue is disturbing in the final episodes.
For an innocent dude Lee Ashworth sure acts shady. Filing a false complaint against Hardy won't win him any points in the not guilty game either.
I don't normally use this language on the blog, but Tom Miller is a little shit. While giving Tom space by allowing him to live with his aunt and remain in Broadchurch may have been the right choice in the short term, in the long term it was the wrong choice. And it is precisely because his mother has decided to deal with the situation by coddling him and allowing him to determine the parameters of their relationship that predicates him freezing her out and eventually leads to his ill-considered decision to testify on behalf of his father. From Tom's perspective his mother has abandoned him to leave Broadchurch and work elsewhere, so Tom's decision to testify is an effort to save the one parent who hasn't willingly abandoned him so to speak.
I will never understand Susan Wright. Last season she stuck around long enough to mess up the investigation before absconding and disappearing only to re-appear again in the midst of the trial just long enough to mess it up and screw over her biological son when he rejects her overtures to re-connect now that she's dying. Of course, the man wants nothing to do with the woman when all she does is lie and accuse him of child murder when he rejects her. Like accusing him of child murder in open court won't win him over. Then she swans off after she's done as much damage as she can to her son just like last time, never mind the potentially irreparable damage it will do to the trial and the Latimer family.
--Reviewed by Ms. Angie
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